When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn What Does Color Palette Mean?
A color palette, in the digital world, refers to the full
range of colors that can be displayed on a device screen or other interface, or
in some cases, a collection of colors and tools for use in paint and
illustration programs. The color palette reveals a lot about the electronic
design of the device or technology, and its visual capabilities for human
users.
A color palette is also known simply as a palette.
Techopedia Explains Color Palette
The digital color palette emerged from the earliest computers, which only had monochrome displays. Early examples include the Teletext format with a three-bit RGB eight-color palette and the Apple II personal computer with a 16-color palette. Devices like early Atari, Commodore and Apple computers and consoles used their own evolving color palettes built on new color technology.
Eventually, advances in display technology introduced a 256-color VGA display that remained a standard until the creation of modern flat-screen plasma screen monitors.
Early color palettes used hexadecimal values to represent and select the array of colors possible in the display systems. Modern color palettes are more likely to show users a color wheel or sophisticated color selection tool to choose from a wide variety of hues and shades of color. It is worth noting that the advancement in digital color palettes and video display color choices coincided with and allowed for the rapid evolution of the modern digital camera, which has now been embedded into smartphones and mobile devices.
